Grace La, who founded the firm La Dallman Architects with her husband James Dallman, has been appointed a full tenured professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. She will take over the post in the department of architecture at Harvard on July 1. | March 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

There was a time when signs in storefronts and on murals, banners and billboards were all lettered by hand by artists. Local artist and gallery owner Faythe Levine and filmmaker Sam Macon have created a documentary about the crafts people who never gave up the lettering trade and the artists who've picked up the traditional practice.

Jenny Milchman, you are either the coolest mother this side of the Pecos, or a completely crazy woman, possibly both.

Milchman, who recently published the suspense novel "Cover of Snow" (Ballantine), is driving around the country visiting independent bookstores to promote her novel -- with her husband AND their two children. "During the tour, we are 'car-schooling' our first- and third-grade children. Part of their education will be seeing the landscape change as the bookstores do," Milchman, who lives in New Jersey, wrote in an article for the bookseller trade e-newsletter Shelf Awareness. | March 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

SloPig, the small-plates-and-punch event in Madison that celebrates heritage pork breeds, is adding goat and beef to the sampling this year. The event March 10 at the Madison Club assembles top chefs and bartenders from Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago.

Chefs will have a half hog, a quarter of beef and a whole goat to create five to seven different small plates for sampling. Attendees can vote for their favorite after tasting the dishes; a panel of judges will vote for the best as well. | March 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

Will the most recent YouTube phenomenon drive last week's number one hitmaker to a second week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart? Find out below and watch the video from the biggest hit in the United States. Then, let's look back in pop music history to find out which songs topped the charts this week in 2008, 1998, 1988 and 1978.

Over the weekend, Jim Stingl published a column in the paper about a "sudden burst of color" at the former Palms nightclub. In it, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett extolled the idea of quick paintings on boarded up buildings, calling it "window dressing."

Barrett, who also talked about art in his State of the City address, giving a prominent shoutout to the energies of Art Milwaukee, a networking and marketing organization, and who recently spent the better part of a day talking up artists to celebrate the city's ArtPlace designation, seems to have gotten religion about the power of art to transform blighted areas and create economic development. | March 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(10)

The Wauwatosa Common Council is considering an ordinance that would ban chain restaurants from the east end of North Ave.

Supporters say barring "formula restaurants" between 60th St. and Wauwatosa Ave. would help preserve the redeveloping neighborhood's local character. An article at WauwatosaNow.com, by reporter Jon Olson, has the details. | March 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

You know how they play out speakers with music when they've gone on too long? You can play out Monday with the sounds of bluegrass music. There's a Bluegrass Jam from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Mukwonago Community Library.